Jesus knew what lay ahead. While he warned his followers, he was also emphasizing his own awareness of the horrible price his gift of love would cost him personally. Yet he did this for you and me. He did it knowingly. He did it sacrificially; he deliberately held back his own power to stop what was going to happen to him. The Cross that awaited him, the mockery that lay in waiting, and the ugliness that would be heaped upon him by those who hated him was known and accepted ... even to a certain extent, embraced. Why? Because a ransom had to be paid and sin had to be atoned. By his wounds, the very wounds he was anticipating, we were healed.